Blog • Page 13 of 31 • Jessica Smith Creates

December 22, 2015August 19, 2018

Belle

My first completely finished costume from my initial cosplay plans.

Also my first self drafted ensemble, completely from start to finish.

Can you see my beaming smile?

Probably not, since its a) the Internet, and b) not showing up in the photos… I’m happy, I promise!

I was in a bit of a mood during the photoshoot. I only had an hour of sunlight left, and I was running late since curling my hair took longer than expected. Plus, smiling to a tripod is not exciting, especially when you’re trying not to fall over… And I forgot to put on the necklace, so there’ll be another post of pictures in the future including that, but for now, here are the pictures!

The progression of shots is in general shedding the fairy tale and changing into the Storybrooke version. I’ve noticed this season that (***spoilers ahead***) when they go back to the fairy tale world, she spans the bridge between fairy tale and real world quite nicely, so I wanted to capture that… (***end of spoilers***)

Plus it made it easier for me to grocery shop afterward, since I already had the hair extensions out.

There’s the smile. Alright! Next up, I’ll be sharing one of my (many) overdue to blogging projects, and then next week will be reflections!

December 16, 2015August 19, 2018

Halloween Week – 2015

If Halloween was an Olympic sport, I think I’d qualify to compete for the national team. I wouldn’t win, but I would probably be invited back for the next year!

That’s probably not how the Olympics works… Moving on!

I upped my Halloween game this year. For almost each day the week before, I subtle-cosplayed. I was so close to making it each of the 5 days, but that Tuesday was unseasonably cold, and the chosen outfit wasn’t finished and wasn’t warm enough. And I got out of bed too late. So there’s room for improvement, right?

Also, coincidentally, all of my outfits this were Disney princess themed. So next year I should try to diversify…

One of my fellow grad students figured out what I was doing on Wednesday, so for Thursday and Friday she made guesses, though my Belle outfit does have a dead giveaway component. I’m not sure if she knows about me making clothing, and if she knows about the blog I’d be very surprised (but hi, if so!), but its nice when something like this gets noticed.

Monday – Briar Rose

Shirt: RTW thrifted / Cardigan: Primark upcycled / Skirt: Me-Made

Tuesday – supposed to be Merida, with a second choice of Kaylee, and neither happened…

Wednesday – Ariel Day Dress

Top: Me-Made / Skirt: Me-Made

Thursday – Merida (Epilogue outfit) – More on this one soon

Top: Me Made / Skirt: Me Made (and not yet blogged)

Friday – Belle

=Dress: Me-made / Cape: Me-made

And then Peggy Carter for real Halloween! But I’ll save that for another post… After the holidays. Stay tuned!

December 14, 2015August 19, 2018

Princess-Style Fake Corset Knit Top

This may be my favorite shirt. I may say that a lot, but this time it is more likely to be true…

It’s also a Nettie hack. Or really, I guess its a hack of a hack. It’s a hack that I’m making t-shirts from the bodysuit pattern, and then taking that pattern to make the new hack with the fake corset appearance. Really its just a colorblocking option that is vaguely shaped like a corset

Starring in this shirt is a black drapey knit that I used in a shirt Nettie, and some kind of cream colored tissue knit. To be honest, I forget where I found both of them.

So I took my altered tnt version of my Nettie shirt, shortened it slightly (and perhaps a smidge too much), and then drew in the hack.

I pulled on a Nettie version, and traced out where the seamline should be. I took this and transferred it to a traced copy of the pattern. I then added seam allowance to the top and the bottom of the new pieces, shown here.

Then I managed to squeeze the lower portion out of the remains of the black drapey knit. It’s amazing what you can do with 1 yard of fabric if you’re super (painfully) thrifty. In this case, I’d like to say I made 2 shirts out of that yard.

And the rest of the fabric was minimal, but luckily I had plenty of that fabric!

I sewed together the top and bottom of the front and back, and then sewed it up like normal!

To be honest, I sewed this up the week before Halloween in about 3 hours, and wore it that night to a costumed swing dance.

I like to think of it as a Disneybound level Ariel. Definitely got lots of compliments on it that night. It would also work nicely for an Aurora one as well.

Subtle cosplay is my jam!

Also, I am definitely out of tune with slang these days (which is ridiculous because I’m still kinda the age to get the slang, I think, maybe…). Do people still say that? Or is it just me?

Regardless, I love this version, and it will probably not be my last!

December 2, 2015August 22, 2022

Iron Man Jeans

Look look look! I made jeans!

Real ones this time, with a useable front fly zipper and everything, unlike the last time… I don’t wear those anymore.

These are the Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Files.

And they’re terra cotta colored.

What else is nearly that color?

Iron Man is.

Okay, I know I’m stretching. Like mad. But Joann’s didn’t have denim in a bright red or bright yellow. So…

Terra cotta it was!

And if I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t wear bright red pants anyway…

I was using these as a muslin, since I had bought very good quality denim that I was afraid to cut into. And I did learn a few things from the muslin. Including how bad VPL can look…but here’s the more sewing related ones.

Firstly, the high waisted-ness of these is great, except that I’m going to need to reduce the height a bit. Because its over my bellybutton (otherwise known as pivot point level on my body) I can’t bend enough to sit on the floor. What do you think I did a lot of during the first week of wearing? Lots of floor sitting…

This summer, I also gained a lot of bellyfat, so on one hand the tummy-stay front pocket was a lovely help, but that combined with the high waisted bit means that I was not terribly comfortable bending all the way over to pick things off the floor when I was sitting in a chair… And looking at the pictures of the back, I’m not convinced that its fitting right there… I’ll need to look at that further when I fix up the pattern, but it could just be a back pockets problem.

There were tons and tons of wrinkles at the back of the knees, so I utilized a design feature from my favorite trousers: a curved “dart” of sorts in the back leg that took a few wrinkles away. Not all, and perhaps not many, but enough. I like this, but if my next pair are tighter it might not be required.

I also need to shorten the legs. One thing about being short, I do get to save inches of fabric, which is great. I cut these off the bottom, and I did it in a rush, so I don’t quite remember how much but it was at minimum 4 inches… I may have cut a bit too much, but it’s a muslin, right?

Then I’m debating whether or not to take these in more. All of my non-skinny jeans recently broke (one with a hole and one with a zipper), so I’ve been craving not-super-skinny jean options, but all the wrinkles around the legs make me a bit sad. So do I give in to the style, or do I deal with the wrinkles?

But my favorite thing ever about these jeans is really the back pocket.

(Iron Man theme/song intensifies!) But really, I’m truly proud of these jeans, and I can’t wait to make the adjustments and cut my expensive denim!

November 24, 2015August 19, 2018

Forest Dandelion

I made this for Indie Pattern Month back in June, but it’s taken me this long to fall in love, I guess.

Partly because of the way it hang as a dress, and partly because as much as I try to stay healthy, summer tends to bring out the junk food and bad habits for me, and this dress is not very forgiving in the stomach area. To be honest, my stomach area is my personal self esteem weak point, and I try my best to help myself in that area by making clothes that I feel good in.

So I cut off the bottom of the dress and made it a tank!

I’ve worn it a bunch now, and I love it this way!

Details then…

This was really the third iteration. The first was a straight mockup of the smallest size made of stretchy fabric, specifically the leftovers from my Peanut Butter Cup bodysuit. It wasn’t terrible, but I needed to make some alterations. I added room to the bum region at the center back seam, and I added a bit in the bust area, plus I “reattached” the yoke pieces to the main pieces, so I wouldn’t need a seam there.

The second version was using a fairly stable, with more give than stretch, ponte I think. Definitely feels like polyester, and I love this version. Except the print is definitely not my thing, it being so floral and dark. It makes some awesome pajamas, though. The neckline was too high for my vision of the final dress, so I lowered the neckline, and I cut in a Merida-type notch.

Then the final version. This is where it kinda went downhill, sadly. The fabric was a stretchy t-shirt jersey. Pretty soft, but it wasn’t stable or uber stretchy, and it has very little drape. I used the exact same shapes as the red floraly one, but I was getting butt wrinkles, and it wasn’t flattering. I took in the center back a lot, and all the way around the inner panels a few times. Eventually, this caused the bust to start wrinkling, so I added in a dart, which mostly affects the top layer. Finally, I ended up with something that mostly fit, and felt fairly comfortable.

I got pictures for IPM, but then I stopped wearing it. I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me about it, then two weeks ago I realized. I could see my stomach poking out, and that was my issue. So I tried it on, cut a notch in the center, added in an uneven hem, and voila!

All better!

Internally, I’ve labeled this my Merida tank, in keeping with my plan for most makes to have closet cosplay potential, and I think it fits nicely. Sometime soon I’ll accessorize appropriately and show you!

November 23, 2015

Coming Soon to a blog near you

Hey there!

It has now been a smidge over a month since I last posted… I had this huuuuuge project/presentation that took over my life, and then I took a week to begin finishing up some projects.

But I have so much to tell you!

We haven’t even remotely discussed Halloween. Which needs to happen. Because I had an exciting week!

I’ve now made two self drafted garments, one of which is actually finished, and the other is… in progress.

There’s still some pieces that have been finished for many months that I want to share but need pictures.

And I’ve realized that I’ve completed a few costumes but have forgotten to take a picture of them as a whole. So as long as the weather cooperates, I should get some full pictures of those.

Because, since we’re on the topic of completed costumes, did you notice the changes I’ve made to the site? It was time for a banner update, since I’ve been out of that apartment for nearly two years now, and I figured that I might as well update the colors a bit as well. I was contemplating changing the theme itself, but I couldn’t find another free one that I liked nearly as much. And I added a new set of pages that will be devoted to finished costumes with links to the in process posts, as I finish and photograph costumes of course? I’ve already started to get loads of traffic to my site about my Susan quiver, so I’m glad the information is all centralized now.

Well, I guess that’s it on my end… for now!

October 20, 2015August 19, 2018

Farewell to Narnia

It has been a long journey to get here.

I started planning this costume nearly three years ago, just before I started this blog. I had fallen in love with it when I first saw ‘Prince Caspian,’ and even working in a costume shop, I had never thought about making it for myself.

During my senior year of college, I finished my first overbust corset, thinking that it would be used for this costume… I’m still a little sad that I won’t be able to use it for this costume. I also got the fabric for the underskirt and the dress itself, which was quilting cotton and poly-satin, respectively.

Last summer I made the “sleeves” and the underskirt, and attached the sleeves to the corset. Not my brightest idea.

In late summer, or early autumn, I showed you the two posts about creating my quiver.

Over the past year, I drafted the overdress from the corset pattern, constructed it from the lining fabric (turquoise satin) as a muslin, then used those pieces to cut out the real fabric and sew it up. That was early autumn of last year. Then I stalled for months. At the end of the spring semester I started sewing the trim onto the top, and when I had the trim mostly on, I stalled again deciding what pattern I really wanted to paint. I got so fed up with it mid-July that I started on it with dots and then worked on the pattern as I went. I finished the painting mid-August, right before school started, and happy with myself, forgot that I actually needed to finish it.

I decided on the last Monday in September that I needed to finish the dress and get it photographed that weekend. This costume deserved better than my living room.

So a friend volunteered to be my photographer, and told me about this awesome library, and here are some of the photos!

It’s about time after 2.5 years, right?

Maybe I’ll get pictures outside sometime, but for now I love these pictures, and this library!

October 19, 2015August 19, 2018

Really the first pair of Tanias

Confession time. I’ve been really procrastinating with making up this post. I made these back in May, and I do like them a lot, but actually wearing them to take pictures has been the hold up.

I showed you my second pair of Tanias, since I entered them in the Monthly Stitch contests in June, but I’ve been procrastinating on these ones.

Picture taking is getting boring, especially since I don’t have a nice porch anymore. I have a porch, but it faces the inside of my apartment complex, so posing there make me feel super weird.

And there’s no good place inside my apartment as well.

But I finally managed the pictures. They’re not fantastic, but here goes!

These are the Tania culottes from Megan Nielsen.

The fabric is a linen mix from Joann Fabrics, and it has a nice body and drape, but before getting washed a few times, they were excessively scratchy at the crotch area.

I think I cut the size large, since that was supposed to be my waist size, and I cut out the XL length. It’s not too short, but its certainly not long.

The construction went easily and quickly, and the first time I wore them I noticed two things.

The waistband was too big at the top of it, but fit well at the bottom. And the crotch seam was a bit too low for me. I think its supposed to be low, but with the linen and my lack of thigh gap, my thighs were rubbing against each other and the seam, and they got a bit raw.

So I took in the top of the waistband a little, and sewed the crotch seam another half inch in.

It’s definitely more comfortable now, and it was nice in the heat of summer when I wanted to stay cool, and if I get a fall (it seems like its skipped fall and headed straight to winter here) it’ll be nice to wear with some tights, since the linen is heavy enough to not get too static-y.

So, I’m nowhere near caught up on the backlog I’ve got, but this is a nice start!

September 18, 2015

Priorities

My office-mate called me out a few days ago for prioritizing Doctor Who over socializing.

And he’s been to my house and sees my cubicle every day… He knows I’m obsessed.

But realistically, its about connection for me.

When I think about Doctor Who, or any of my many favorite shows and movies, I’m reminded of my fun times with friends or family members where we talked about, laughed about, geeked about these shows.

And its not like I don’t have unusual prioritizations anyway…

Most of the time, homework is the top priority, unless its actually due, which is pretty normal.

TV/movies are always high on the list.

edit — (Not Doctor Who, but equally special to me, my Susan Farewell dress from the Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian movie)

Sewing is next, with an emphasis on costumes, and again nothing with a due date.

Knitting is an all the time endeavour, since I’ve got bus projects, like these socks I’m working on, but if I can’t work on it on the bus, it typically follows sewing.

Other crafts have their time too… mostly whenever I’m really interested. Or want something…

And then there’s socializing. Last on the list. I like persons, of course. I do. But I like my alone time a lot as well, especially after spending all day at various offices and in random classes. And buses. All the buses. There’s something about laying on my couch and completely avoiding dealing with people that is so lovely.

So even if I am watching Doctor Who with a close friend and a Whovian that I haven’t met yet on Saturday, I don’t really care whether that means I’m not socializing with everyone I know… Maybe I’ll spend an hour at my office-mate’s potluck, but when 9pm nears there will be nothing to keep me from my Doctor Who premiere. And the connections I’ll make with that.

Because I know that two of my closest friends will likely be attending in their own homes too. And being together separately is a great thing.

September 15, 2015August 19, 2018

Syrah and Netties

At least for midseasons, so Fall and Spring, I have fulfilled my wearable blanket dreams.

Meet Syrah, version 2.

This fabric is fuzzy, and yummy, and just barely stripey. It was also free, since my parents gave it to me as a gift. Actually the same gift as the green one, so I got two maxi skirts for nothing as basically a gift. Did I mention its fuzzy?

I just want to pet it.

Forever and always.

I made this Syrah in nearly the same way as my green version.

I changed up the pockets in theory. I tried to make them flatter, which I did succeed at. They’re a bit too small now though, so I’m not sure it worked well. I can still fit my keys and phone, but my hands don’t fit.

The waistband is also the flat one. I like the ruched one, but I can’t wear a shirt over it, if I’m having a large tummy day (because isn’t food wonderful?). The flat one works much nicer for this purpose. I like wearing shirts tucked in with it, but its nice to have the option.

It’s just such a comfy skirt!

Plus, it works really well with my new Nettie shirts!

I’ve had this black thin t-shirt from Forever 21 for years. It never fit very well, but it was necessary for my first job, and I’ve had no reason to get rid of it… except for the holes from acid and a few little stains.

But if I was getting rid of it, I needed to replace it. So when I went fabric shopping a few months ago, I tuned into the black jersey fabric. I actually found two, one that was very t-shirt stable and opaque, and one that was super drapey and silky with a hint of sheer. I couldn’t decide which was better, so I bought both, and they’re super comfy.

The pattern is the same as my turquoise one, and construction and everything are the same. By now, I can churn one of these out in just over an hour, if I set my mind to it. I am getting some wrinkles from the underarm, which I’ll try to fix on future Netties, but overall, these were a great choice!

Comfort is key, and all three of these makes are fantastic in that department.

Cause nothing beats a wearable blanket!